Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs issued a pioneering invitation to tender in a move to equip its fire and rescue workers with exoskeletons to aid in heavy lifting. CEA LIST spinoff RB3D, which designs innovative collaborative robotics, was among three bidders shortlisted for the contract.

Hercule, Europe’s first exoskeleton, was born in 2009, the fruit of a French-government-funded R&D program uniting CEA LIST and RB3D. The exoskeleton operates extremely smoothly and offers excellent energy yield (4 hours of operation at 5 kph), thanks to its reversible cable actuators and ARM Cortex-8 processor for real-time movement control.

The ongoing partnership between CEA LIST and RB3D has resulted in the development of several lower-limb demonstrators designed to help operators carry heavy loads in industrial and military settings. RB3D’s solutions are some of the most advanced in the world in terms of technology. For users, this means cobots that adapt to their environment and adjust to different situations to provide maximum ergonomics. The technology is so flexible, in fact, that the Hercule exoskeleton can be adapted to provide each operator with specific features to meet his or her needs.

In the final phase of the bidding process, RB3D went to Singapore in late February to show decision makers in person what Hercule can do. The exoskeleton for Singapore’s fire and rescue workers must be able to withstand the extreme conditions firefighters encounter inside burning buildings and climb around ten stories.